What is Biblical Foreshadowing?

Many of us have heard the old adage “history often repeats itself.” Of course, we all know that no two sets of historical events are ever exactly the same. But sometimes events are so similar that the second seems to be a repetition of the first. When biblical writers saw that events in the past seemed to be repeated in the lives of their audiences, they often made this connection clear. And this literary technique is known as “foreshadowing.”

One example of foreshadowing occurs in the episode of Abraham’s deliverance from Egypt found in Genesis 12:10-20. This passage was written to guide Israel in their outlooks on Egypt. In this case, Moses constructed the entire episode so that it closely paralleled the experience of Israelites under his leadership. In Genesis 12:10-20, Abraham began a sojourn in Egypt because of a famine in the land of Canaan, he was delayed in Egypt when Pharaoh took Sarah into his harem, but God delivered Abraham by sending diseases on Pharaoh’s house. Pharaoh then sent Abraham away from Egypt and Abraham left Egypt with great wealth.

This story about Abraham was clearly designed to foreshadow the experience of the nation of Israel generations later. Just like Abraham, they sojourned to Egypt because of a famine in the land of Canaan. They were held there by Pharaoh, they were delivered by disease sent from God to the house of Pharaoh, Pharaoh ordered Israel’s release, and Israel left Egypt having plundered the riches of the Egyptians.

Moses purposefully shaped this account so that it foreshadowed the experiences of his audience. This kind of extensive foreshadowing is rare in the stories of Abraham, but such connections appear here and there in Abraham’s stories. Moses connected “that world” of Abraham’s life to “their world,” the world of his original audience by showing how Abraham’s life foreshadowed many of their experiences.